Species profile
Canis lupus
Gray wolf
This is a curated published estimate, not a live census. Estimates may refer to mature individuals, wild individuals or a documented range and are not directly comparable between species.
LC · Least Concern — Least Concern — low risk, widespread and abundant
About this species
Gray wolf (Canis lupus) is part of the curated SpeciesWatch catalogue and is classified as Least Concern. A wolf's howl can carry 10 km across open terrain, and each wolf has a unique voice that pack members recognise instantly. Its recorded population direction is stable, although that summary can combine local populations following different trajectories.
Habitat, behaviour and ecological role
This profile associates the species with terrestrial, forest, tundra. These labels summarise environments used during different stages of its life rather than drawing an exact range boundary. The reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone in 1995 triggered a trophic cascade: elk changed their behaviour, willows and aspens recovered, and beavers and songbirds returned. Its anatomy and behaviour are responses to those environments, while movement can connect distant places requiring different forms of management.
Why this species is at risk
Wolf packs are family units — usually a breeding pair and their offspring — and pups are raised by the whole pack, including aunt and uncle wolves. The catalogue records 2 principal pressures for this profile: Human persecution, Livestock conflict. They should not be treated as isolated causes. Habitat change, exploitation, pollution, disease and climate stress can reinforce one another, while the importance of each pressure varies between regions and through time.
Conservation outlook
Direct protection needs to combine enforcement with conflict prevention, demand reduction and local benefits that make coexistence viable. Actions need long-term monitoring and revision as evidence changes; a positive intervention in one place does not by itself represent recovery across the species.
Editorial review: 2026-08-21
Threat factors
Known occurrences
Dots are georeferenced occurrence records from OBIS (marine) and GBIF (global), not individual animals and not a complete range map. Up to 500 recent API results are cached; the profile renders at most 500 points.
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Listen to this species
Chartreuse · 6:36 · https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/